


light my candle

by sugarlessgum



Series: Spooky n Cozy (Halloween 2020) [3]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Getting Together, Ghost Stories, M/M, Power Outage, Roommates, oh my god they were roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:09:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26737906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarlessgum/pseuds/sugarlessgum
Summary: He smiled at Joey, the candlelight casting a wicked shadow over his face. “We could tell ghost stories.”
Relationships: Bakura Ryou/Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler
Series: Spooky n Cozy (Halloween 2020) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1945996
Kudos: 7





	light my candle

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Ragon Dickard's [Spooky n' Cozy Inktober challenge](https://www.instagram.com/p/B2nJVJnDF-Z/) on Instagram
> 
> Day 3: Candle
> 
> Ghost story sources: [[x]](https://savvytokyo.com/scary-stories-7-japanese-tales-that-will-chill-you-to-the-bone/) [[x]](https://www.rd.com/list/spookiest-ghost-story-from-each-state/)

“Hah! Found it!” Joey grabbed the flashlight from the back of the cabinet, banging his head on the way out. It would be sore in the morning but at least they had light. He clicked the button once. Twice. The room remained pitch black. “Fuck.”

“It’s all right, Joey. I’ve got it.” Ryou came out of his bedroom with an armful of candles. Most of them looked like votives of some kind. Joey wondered if lighting so many of Ryou’s spooky witch candles at once would summon _something_ into their apartment. Not like they had much choice at the moment. The power went out down their whole street in the storm, so their only other option was sitting in the dark staring at the rain. At least this way they could see each other’s faces.

Joey helped Ryou arrange the candles in a circle around their living room, then watched as he carefully lit each one. Oh yeah. They were definitely gonna be haunted after this. The room looked much better once everything was lit. It was almost cozy, if you could ignore the wind and rain pounding against the windows.

Joey dropped onto the couch with a sigh. “Now what?”

Ryou had moved to the small kitchenette. He pulled a pair of mugs from the cabinet while water boiled on the stove. He smiled at Joey, the candlelight casting a wicked shadow over his face. “We could tell ghost stories.”

He said it like a question, as if Joey would ever tell him no.

“Sure, why not.” How bad could it be, anyway? Joey wasn’t a teenager anymore. It would take a lot more than hook hands and undead hitchhikers to scare him. He jumped as the tea kettle whistled. Yeah. He was much braver now.

Ryou very kindly didn’t comment on the jump, but he did ask, “Are you sure? We can always find something else to do.” He passed a mug to Joey and sat cross-legged on the couch beside him.

“I’ll be fine. Hit me with your best shot.” Ryou inched closer on the couch and tapped his fingers against his mug.

“All right, let’s see. Which one should we start with?” He was staring out the window, likely going through the extensive library of hauntings he had memorized. “Oh, I know! How about an old samurai tale from Kyoto?”

Joey raised an eyebrow. “What, like ghost samurai? That sounds exciting.”

“Not quite, actually. It’s about a samurai and his wife who lived in poverty. One day, a noble from a distant land was passing through and offered the samurai a chance to serve on his estate. He had no choice but to accept, so he left his wife in Kyoto to await his return. Years later, after dutifully serving his lord, he finally came home to find his house in disrepair. However, his wife was still there and she welcomed him back with open arms.

“They spent the whole night talking and laughing and enjoying each other’s company before finally drifting off to sleep. But when he woke the next morning, he found he was no longer holding his wife. Instead, his arms were wrapped around a skeleton with long, black hair. He learned from a neighbor that his wife had passed away the summer before. But her spirit had remained in the house, faithfully waiting for her husband’s return.”

“Well that wasn’t scary,” Joey said. “That was just sad.”

Ryou took a sip of his tea. The candlelight danced in his eyes and Joey had to stop himself from leaning closer. He was starting to think this whole thing had been a terrible idea. He had prepared himself for scary stories in the dark. A cozy evening with mood lighting spent in painfully close proximity to the very handsome roommate he had slowly developed feelings for, not so much.

“How about one from America then?” Ryou suggested, snapping Joey out of his thoughts. Joey simply nodded in agreement and gulped down some of his own tea to occupy himself. “Hmm. There’s the ghost of Stepp Cemetery. A woman who lost her husband in a mining accident and coped with her grief by obsessively caring for their daughter. Years later, her daughter was killed in a horrible car crash. It’s said that the woman’s spirit still haunts the graveyard where her husband and daughter are buried.”

“That one’s sad too.”

“Ghost stories usually are. Any story that involves that much death would be.”

His eyes were distant and he was clutching his mug so tightly that even in the dim lighting Joey could see his knuckles had turned white. His own sister had died in a crash when they were young, Joey knew. Joey set his mug on the table, then carefully removed Ryou’s from his grip.

“Then how about we talk about something else? Something happier.”

Ryou refocused his gaze on Joey’s face. He smiled softly and inched closer once again. “I do have one that’s a little happier. Have you ever heard the story of the Peony Lantern?”

“It sounds kinda familiar. But I bet it sounds better when you tell it.”

Ryou straightened up, composing himself for the story. “Hundreds of years ago, on the first night of Obon, a widower named Ogiwara saw a woman traveling by his house with her maid, who carried a peony lantern. The woman, Otsuyu, was beautiful and Ogiwara fell in love at first sight. He invited her into his home and they quickly became lovers. Otsuyu and her maid would visit every night, and Ogiwara began sleeping through the days so he could spend all night with her. One of Ogiwara’s elderly neighbors became concerned by his absence during the day. So one night, the neighbor peeked into his home and was horrified to find Ogiwara making love to a decaying skeleton.”

Joey scrunched up his face in disgust. “Gross.”

Ryou nodded and continued with the story. “After the neighbor told Ogiwara what he’d seen, Ogiwara sought help from a local priest. He was shocked to learn that Otsuyu had died years earlier. He even found her grave at the temple. The priest put a protection around Ogiwara’s house and Otsuyu was no longer able to visit. However, even after learning the truth, Ogiwara still loved and missed Otsuyu.

“Distraught and unable to stay away any longer, Ogiwara returned to the temple where Otsuyu was buried. She appeared before him and urged him to go with her so they could be together forever. He wasn’t seen again after that and the priest grew concerned. After he could not find Ogiwara at his home, the priest opened up Otsuyu’s crypt. He found two skeletons, Ogiwara and Otsuyu, entwined together.”

“That’s your idea of ‘happy?’”

“I think it’s romantic.” Ryou had gotten closer again during the story. Or maybe it was Joey who had moved this time. Either way, their knees were touching and Joey could make out the finer details of Ryou’s face in the candlelight.

“That’s certainly one way to look at it.”

Ryou shrugged. “I guess I just like the idea that you can find true love, even after death.”

“You believe in ‘true love?’”

“I’d like to.” He was definitely leaning in. Joey wasn’t imagining that. “What about you? Do you believe?”

It took a moment for Joey to answer. Ryou was close enough that Joey could smell his sandalwood shampoo, and it was making it hard to think. “Yes,” Joey said. Or he thought he said it, at least. He wasn’t quite sure if he managed to get it out before Ryou’s mouth was on his own.

It was brief, chaste, before Ryou pulled back and searched Joey’s face. Joey put a hand on the back of Ryou’s neck and reeled him back in. Ryou laughed against his lips and wrapped his arms around Joey’s shoulders. This was much better than ghost stories, Joey thought.


End file.
